Thieving baboons caught in the act as they’re pictured breaking into a block of flats

Up here, boys: A baboon opens the window as an accomplice shimmies up (Picture: Solent)

You might think you were safe from burglars breaking into your third-floor flat with a sheer drop outside.

But not with this gang of baboons around.

The determined thieves scaled the walls, prised open a window and clambered inside.

Sneaky: A baboon attempts to flee the scene in disguise (Picture: Solent)

After 30 minutes of riffling through the owner’s possessions, they came out to parade their loot – a giant teddy bear.

One even tried to use a bed sheet as a disguise when fleeing the scene of the crime.

The audacious escapade was captured on camera by a French wildlife photographer who later thwarted another team of baboons targeting the same flat.

I’ve got the bear: One of the gang comes out with the booty (Picture: Solent)

Cyril Ruoso, 43, travelled to Cape Town in South Africa to take pictures of the monkeys. He said: ‘At first, only one of them was inside the flat. He opened the front windows with his mouth, and about ten baboons then came into the flat.

‘I am quite used to working with monkeys but I was amazed. When they came out with a giant teddy bear, I was even more astonished.’

The chacma baboon raids are common in South Africa, where monitoring teams are employed to try to keep them at bay.

Hungry work: The peckish pilferers leave the fridge door open and food scattered around the flat before making good their escape (Picture: Solent)